Sports

County athletes representing Canton, Van and Wills Point made their way to the Texas A&M campus in Commerce April 29-30 to compete against one another and some of the top programs from across East Texas at the Class 4A Region II Meet.

The Van Vandals clashed with a familiar foe April 29, battling with Brownsboro in a tiebreaker game to determine which team would enter this year’s playoffs as the top seed in District 14-4A play. Van and Brownsboro had met twice before with Van besting the Bears 14-12 back on March 29 and Brownsboro returning the favor with a 14-4 win over the Vandals April 14.

The Canton, Van and Wills Point track teams made their way west to Sunnyvale last week, competing against athletes from Athens, Brownsboro, Kaufman, Mabank, Nevada Community, Quinlan Ford, Sunnyvale and Terrell this year’s District 13/14-4A Area Meet.

Kyla Bain completed one of the rarest feats in all of sports, pitching a perfect game in the Fruitvale Firecrackers’ 12-0 win over the Edgewood Dirty Dozen April 18. Bain’s performance was made more incredible by the fact that she struck out all 12 batters she faced, including 11 on swinging strikes. The Fruitvale lefty would strike out nine more batters in her next start before allowing her first walk of the season. Courtesy photo

The Edgewood Bulldog and Grand Saline Indian track programs each had an opportunity to qualify athletes for the Class 3A State Track and Field Meet in Austin this week with multiple entrants at the Regional Track Meet in Whitehouse April 29-30.

The Van Lady Vandals and Athens Lady Hornets met up for the third time this season April 22, playing to determine which team would serve as the fourth and final playoff qualifier from District 14-4A entering this year’s playoffs.

The Canton Eaglettes kept busy last week despite having already locked up the second seed in District 14-4A play entering the playoffs, squaring off against Sulphur Springs in a warm-up game April 22.

The ETA1 16 Black volleyball team recently won the 16 American Division at the 2022 Lone Star Volleyball Classic and earned a berth in the upcoming USAV National Tournament in Indianapolis this July. The team includes two athletes with Van Zandt County ties, including Canton standout Georgia Crayton (first row, far right) and Edgewood’s Kassidy Paul (top row, fourth from left). Courtesy photo

The Class 3A and Class 4A UIL State Tennis Tournaments had a distinct Van Zandt County flair in 2022 with eight local athletes, two doubles teams from both Edgewood and Wills Point, among the contenders.

Track and field athletes representing Athens, Brownsboro, Canton, Mabank, Van and Wills Point competed in the District 14-4A Meet at Ken Autry Davis Field in Wills Point last week. Canton ran away from the field in the varsity girls division, winning first place overall with 197 points.